#hollie may songwriter

[rhapsodynew]

#everything you need to know about rock

Britain's first guitar hero who influenced everyone 

Hank Marvin was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on October 28, 1941 and grew up in a two-story family home with an outdoor toilet and no running water. From an early age, he showed an insatiable craving for music: he tirelessly mastered the banjo and piano.

But the fascination with blues, folk and skiffle inevitably led the young enthusiast to the guitar: 

"I was trying to learn how to play skiffle tunes, copy what I heard on the radio, learn how to play the melody that the singer was humming, as well as any saxophone or orchestral phrases."

At the age of nine, Hank Marvin was upset that he was prescribed glasses:

 "I was a skinny, pimply, insecure kid. And I got the big round glasses of the National Health Service in a tortoiseshell frame."

But then a cool author and performer Buddy Holly appeared from across the ocean, who forever changed the opinion about bespectacled people. Soon after, Marvin's life changed. His glasses suddenly became a fashionable rocker accessory. He got a job at an electrical engineering firm to earn money for a train to London.

Events were developing rapidly. Hank Marvin left in April 1958, in September he met the young vocalist Cliff Richard in Soho, who was trying on a jacket in an atelier, and immediately joined him on tour. When Hank returned to his native Newcastle, he was already a star and performed in front of an audience of screaming girls.

Cliff Richard's band was named The Shadows. Their music is instrumental rock classics, which to this day has not left the current repertoire. It is the "Shadows" They released the legendary hit "Apache", written by English songwriter Jerry Lordan and influenced a legion of aspiring guitar heroes. Including on the VIA "Singing guitars".

After becoming a star, Hank Marvin absorbed everything the music world had to offer: 

"I wouldn't believe it if I was told at the age of 16 that we were going to have incredible success. We played concerts all over the world. We performed in African villages. They caused riots in Germany when there were so many people on the streets that the limo almost overturned. It's an incredible experience, some frightening, and some just wow!"

Cliff Richards and The Shadows have created quite a few era-defining hits. Hank's band continued to come out and record. The line-up broke up between 1968 and 1973, but was reformed. In 1975, The Shadows took second place in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Let Me Be the One".

Hank Marvin began his solo career in 1969 with an album of instrumental compositions, in which guitar parts were accompanied by arrangements for the orchestra. He experimented with styles and materials, recording instrumental records, albums with vocals, acoustic guitars.

Hank Marvin's guitar can be heard in the recordings Roger Daltrey and Jean-Michel Jarre. Its unique sound has always remained instantly recognizable. Hank did not seek to increase the volume, preferring a light vibrato and giving his parts vocal qualities.

In the late 1970s, The Shadows impressed even punks: "During the release of the album "20 Golden Greats", people came to our concerts who looked completely out of place. When we asked why they were here, they replied, "We like the economy of your music. It's like early punk." I didn't quite understand what they were talking about, but it was nice."

With his melodic playing style and expressive "singing" phrasing, Hank Marvin inspired George Harrison, Eric Clapton, David Gilmore, Brian May, Tony Iommi, Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page. One of the most loyal fans is Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. Hank Marvin's red Strat struck his imagination as a child. They subsequently performed together.:

Even the patriarch of Canadian rock paid tribute to the leader of The Shadows as one of the architects of modern music Neil Young. No wonder one of his songs is called "From Hank to Hendrix."

He was one of the first to bring instrumental GUITAR music to the top positions. Before that, there were cool guitarists, even pioneers, some by sound, some by melodies. But The Shadow (and Marvin, as a lead guitarist, of course, occupied a dominant position) were, if not the first, then at least one of the first to bring the guitar instrumental to a leading position.

The epoch!

[newmusickarl]

Top 10 EPs of 2024

As we have seen, 2024 has been a mega year for new albums with Hayden Thorpe’s Ness being named as my Album of the Year just a week or so ago. You can read why I was such a fan of that record along with my other Top 50 album picks, as well as find a playlist of my 100 favourite songs from this year, by scrolling below or simply flicking through the New Music Central archives for December.

However, as many great longplayers as we received in 2024, there was an equal abundance of great shortplayers too. In today’s hectic world where the demand for “snackable” (shout out Andrew Belt) content has risen, the humble Extended Play has seen a big resurgence in recent times.

So, I’ve looked back over the last 12 months and picked out my ten favourites of the year. As always, I’ve gone for an eclectic selection that pulls from various genres - so, depending on your taste, hopefully you’ll find something to enjoy on this list.

Honourable Mentions:

Blessed by August Charles

Sable by Bon Iver

Arable Ground by Dura Mater

Heartbreak Town by GIRLBAND!

Tunes For Late Spring by Gus Dapperton

Work In Progress by Holly Humberstone

Neptunes by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Joe Goddard

Nothing Much To Say by Katie Keddie

Drop 7 by Little Simz

Marietta by Medium Build

Here we go then, my Top 10 EPs of 2024…

10. Incommunicado by Express Office Portico

A bittersweet release this from the end of March, as Notts indie-pop outfit Express Office Portico finally released their debut EP. However, the release of the project also coincided with the news that lead singer Tara would be stepping down from the band, throwing the band’s entire future into question.

A huge loss who leaves big shoes to fill, Incommunicado manages to work as both a final chapter for the band at this stage, as well as an insight into their flourishing potential should they continue. Featuring five catchy and shimmering indie-pop grooves, its highlighted by No One, In Swim and excellent single He Said She Said.

Listen here

9. Fantasies by Bombay Bicycle Club

A band that just don’t seem to miss, indie-heroes Bombay Bicycle Club followed up their much-acclaimed sixth album, 2023’s My Big Day, with this fantastic four-track EP back in February.

Very much keeping the collaborative spirit of My Big Day alive, each track features a female guest vocalist to compliment Jack Steadman’s signature vocals, with the wonderful Matlida Mann, Liz Lawrence, Lucy Rose and Rae Morris all appearing on a track each here. My personal favourite is Better Now with Rae Morris (which made my year-end playlist), however if you’re a big Bombay fan like me, then you’re sure to enjoy this short-but-sweet companion piece to 2023’s My Big Day.

Listen here

8. BAMBI by Aziya

Having discovered her off of brilliantly infectious 2023 single, Atomic, I tried twice to catch this innovative multi-instrumentalist and producer live in 2024, but failed to see Aziya both times at Dot to Dot and Lost Village respectively.

While I still wait to tick her off my list of artists to have seen live, her debut project BAMBI gave an idea of this 21-year-old’s huge potential. An album-sized EP at 10 tracks long, with each of the six main cuts interspersed with some voicemail-style interludes, it’s a fascinating debut that sees Aziya frequently deliver genre-bending blends of catchy pop hooks and grunge-style rock guitars. Still only 18 minutes in length, it’s an endlessly replayable listen highlighted by singles party’s over and crush (tom verlaine).

Listen here

7. A Guilty Heart Can Never Rest by Låpsley

Extremely talented, York-born singer, songwriter, musician and producer Holly Lapsley Fletcher, better known by her stage name Låpsley, had a very busy 2024. However, despite a wave of great singles released throughout the year, it was her latest EP, which dropped back in May, that kept me coming back for the most repeat spins.

Essentially a more “snackable” version of everything that has made her three albums such a pleasure to experience so far, A Guilty Heart Can Never Rest sees Låpsley build her own sonic world out of intriguing ambient electronica and experimental pop flourishes. From scintillating opener 4AM Ascension Day, hypnotic synth-driven highlights Kerosene Dreams and Angeles, to the dramatic, Radiohead-esque closer Build A Man, it continues Låpsley’s run of always unique and interesting releases.

Listen here

6. Redemption Songs by Jayahadadream & Zoutr

As you can see from my honourable mentions on this list alone, there’s been a bucket load of great releases from some of Nottingham’s best rising stars this year, with these next three picks my favourites from the bunch. Possibly the biggest of those released this year was this debut EP from Jayahadadream, coming fresh off the back of her victory in the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition over the summer.

For those new to Jaya’s music, Redemption Songs is the perfect introduction to her incredible talent. Seeing her team up with equally talented Notts producer Zoutr for the project, it showcases Jaya’s breathtakingly nuanced flow and flair for engaging storytelling. From singles Twiggy and Stubborn, through to the intimately ambient Ur In Love and the glistening guitars of the title track, it’s a dazzling 20-minute listening experience.

Listen here

5. Maid Marian Way by LYVIA

However, another Notts superstar worth checking out is soulful pop sensation LYVIA, who also released her debut shortplayer this year. The EP takes its name from a road running through Notts where LYVIA can often be found recording her viral videos for social media. Now taking the energy of those raw takes to the studio, Maid Marian Way showcases her unique blend of pop melodies, spoken word rap and R&B swagger, with plenty of heart and relatable experiences in the lyrics too.

Every song here is a highlight as well, from the spellbinding and piano-laden opener Barriers, the infectious groove of Rock With Me, through to the stripped-back and sincere Homesick. This project is LYVIA demonstrating her immense talent and commercial appeal at full force, and I personally can’t wait to see what she does next.

Listen here

4. Idiot by Bored Marsh

From lockdown hobby to one of Nottingham’s best bands - rock outfit Bored Marsh also finally released their debut EP in 2024, and it fully lived up to the high expectations they have set over the last few years with their thrilling live performances. Filled with hypnotic, dark and spiralling guitar passages, as well as big, anthemic choruses, the Idiot EP delivers the band’s mission statement in typically epic fashion. From one of the year’s standout singles in Alright, OK! to live favourite Honest Day’s Work, it’s a fantastic first outing.

Here is what I said in my CLASH review back in September:

“Everything that has gotten Bored Marsh attention so far is laid out tightly on this EP. From Joe Need’s passionate vocals to the dynamic and stylistically varied guitars, the appeal of Bored Marsh’s sound is evidently clear from this first collection. Reflected in Broadmarsh’s recent rejuvenation, Bored Marsh have ascended from the bleakness of lockdown to present the confident and assured band found playing on this EP. While the music itself often remains dwelling in the darkness, the hopefulness is carried in their massive, soon to be realised, potential.”

Listen here

Read the full review for Clash here

3. Fifteen Minutes With Spielmann by Spielmann

From Nottingham to Leeds now, another UK city that has had a tremendous 2024 thanks to artists such as English Teacher, Yard Act and Nia Archives. However, another artist that quietly caught my attention is songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Lewis, AKA Spielmann, who I discovered through Dot to Dot a few years back and finally saw live earlier this year at Get Together in Sheffield.

Well worth fifteen short minutes of your time, Spielmann’s latest EP is bursting with joyful splendour, boasting big stadium-sized choruses, witty lyrics and shimmering synths. The mantra may be admittedly a familiar one at times, but that doesn’t make it any less fun, as Lewis’ unique way with words always keeps it fresh too.

Described by himself as “Harry Styles for 6Music Dads”, you’ll also find shades of Bruce Springsteen and Brandon Flowers on highlights 10,000 Hours and Under The Weather.

Listen here

2. Lagos Paris London by Yannis & The Yaw

In lieu of a new Foals record in 2024, frontman Yannis Philippakis kept us fans well fed by finally releasing his long awaited first solo project this year, and it’s ended up my runner-up here.

A dazzling, collaborative five track EP featuring the late-great Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, it’s a project as vibrant and sonically adventurous as the globe-trotting title would suggest. While Yannis brings his signature guitar grooves to the table, some soaring string arrangements, jazz-like horns and Allen’s Afrobeat-style drums ensure the project always has a different feel to anything under the Foals banner.

Whilst the whole EP is well worth 20 minutes of your time, it is Rain Can’t Reach Us and Clementine that particularly stand out for me. Both featuring Yannis’ jittery riffs but with a good measure of worldly sonic influence from the other members of The Yaw, it showcases the rich, audio delights we can come to expect from Yannis’ solo venture, should he return for another helping in the future.

Listen here

1. Time Is Forever by Holly Macve

So here we are then, my favourite EP of the year – Time Is Forever by Galway-born singer-songwriter, Holly Macve.

There is quite simply nothing better than a perfect shortplayer, one that isn’t too long and where every song is as outstanding as the last. I’m pleased to say that Time Is Forever is that EP. While Macve also released her gorgeous third studio album Wonderland in 2024, this EP is essentially the bitesize version of that full length project, with the shortened tracklist and runtime allowing these songs to have a punchier and more profound effect.

Self-described as a series of “diary entries”, it is Holly laying bare her inner thoughts and feelings across five exceptionally honest and majestic tracks. From the waltzing liberation of Beauty Queen to the gut-punch heartbreak of Dreamer, to the beautifully understated, Lana Del Rey-featuring piano ballad Surburban House, it is just effortlessly stunning at every turn. However, Holly saves the best two moments for last, thanks to the hazy soulfulness of the EP’s brilliant title track, which is then followed by the gorgeous, hopeful Americana of 1995.

If you’re a Lana Del Rey fan and haven’t heard this EP yet, do not sleep on it – not just for the Lana feature itself, but because Holly frequently echoes the pop icon at her intoxicatingly timeless best. Beautiful and brilliant, it was easily my standout shortplayer of 2024.

Listen here

Stay tuned for the final part of my 2024 year-end lists – featuring my favourite gigs of the year!

[scotianostra]

On July 17th 2009 the singer/songwriter Gordon Waller and one half of the duo Peter & Gordon passed away.

Waller, the son of a surgeon, was born in Braemar, and went to Westminster school, in London, where he met Peter Asher in 1959. Asher was already something of a jazz and blues fan, but Waller persuaded him to broaden his horizons to include pop and rock'n'roll. Both were keen guitarists and soon they were entertaining their fellow students. By 1963, they were playing (initially as Gordon and Peter) in pubs and small clubs at lunchtimes and evenings for small fees or for a meal, often singing their own compositions in the close harmony style of the Everly Brothers. Early in 1964, they were booked for a two-week engagement at the Pickwick nightclub. One of the diners was Norman Newell, an EMI record producer. Newell was charmed enough by Peter and Gordon's rendition of their song If I Were You to offer them a recording contract.

At this time, McCartney was dating Jane, and Peter and Gordon badgered McCartney to provide them with a song. He obliged with A World Without Love, which he had written six years earlier in Liverpool. McCartney told his biographer Barry Miles: "Gordon was a lot of fun – he was slightly less academic than Peter. It was he who persuaded Peter to jump school to do lunchtime sessions."

By the end of March 1964, A World Without Love had displaced the Beatles' own Can't Buy Me Love at the top of the charts. In May, just before Waller's 19th birthday and Asher's 20th, it was the biggest selling record in the US. The instant stardom created by A World Without Love was the beginning of two years of frantic activity for Peter and Gordon.

For the American media, they combined the cachet of a Beatles connection (McCartney wrote several more of their hits and fans discerned in Waller a slight resemblance to John Lennon) There were numerous television appearances, occasional tours of Japan and Australia as well as North America and dozens of recordings. In the next 12 months, Nobody I Know and I Don't Want to See You Again (both by McCartney) were transatlantic hits, as were I Go To Pieces, written by Del Shannon, and True Love Ways, a Buddy Holly song the duo had performed in their early days in London.

By now, Peter and Gordon were competing in North America with numerous other British imports, including another middle-class duo, Chad and Jeremy. Their star began to wane in 1966, when their only hits were Woman, another McCartney composition credited pseudonymously to "Bernard Webb", and Lady Godiva, a novelty number that was denounced as obscene by the mayor of Coventry, which helped it reach the Top 20 in Britain and the American Top 10. By 1967, Peter and Gordon's British career was over and in America they were reduced to peddling olde English material such as the minor hit The Knight in Rusty Armour and the album Sunday for Tea. They split up the next year, with Asher joining the Beatles' Apple project as an A&R man and Waller launching a career as a solo singer.

Despite the fact that he had been the stronger vocalist of the pair, this career was stillborn. A handful of singles were issued, plus a 1970 album of his own compositions called Gordon. He left showbusiness to run a landscape gardening business in Northamptonshire until, in 1971, he took the part of Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

In the 1980s and 90s Waller ran a music publishing business in America. In the last few years of his life, he reunited with Asher to play a few shows in Los Angeles, the Philippines and New York

[hooked-on-elvis]

"You Asked Me To" (1973/1975)

"You Asked Me To" is a song written by the country singers Waylon Jennings and Billy Joe Shaver. Jennings first released the song in June 1973 on his album Honky Tonk Heroes, and the song spent fifteen weeks on the Billboard country singles charts. Elvis recorded the song on December 11, 1973 at Stax Records studios in Memphis, Tennessee, but it was only released during Elvis's 40th birthday (January 8, 1975) in the album Promised Land. The delay paid off. The country album peaked #1 on the Billboard's Top Country LPs chart, as well as the Cashbox Country albums chart.

THE MUSICIANS ON THIS TRACK: Guitar: James Burton, Johnny Christopher, Charlie Hodge. Bass: Norbert Putnam. Drums: Ronnie Tutt. Piano & Organ: David Briggs, Per-Erik Hallin. Vocals: Kathy Westmoreland, Mary (Jeannie) Greene, Mary Holladay, Susan Pilkington, Voice, J.D. Sumner & The Stamps. OVERDUBS — Guitar: Dennis Linde, Alan Rush. Percussion: Rob Galbraith. Piano: Bobby Ogdin. Organ: Randy Cullers. Vocals: Ginger Holladay, Mary Holladay, Mary Cain.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE RECORDING MOMENT FOR THIS SONG IN 1973:

Studio Sessions for RCA, December 10–16, 1973: Stax Studios, Memphis The night began with "You Ask Me To", a Waylon Jennings song that had been one of several recent hits for the Texas singer-songwriter. As a teenager Jennings had watched the young Hillbilly Cat perform in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, and he (like Buddy Holly, also from Lubbock) was impressed with what he saw. Now Elvis was following Jennings’s recording closely, and completed a lively take on the second try. For once, though, Elvis was satisfied before Felton [Jarvis]; the producer wanted to get something more from his singer, but when the hopped-up Elvis messed up on the next attempt, he started taking out his frustration on Felton. With the overwhelming criticism of the previous sessions, Felton felt compelled to push, encourage, and direct his artist, in an effort to make sure he gave the very best he could. Settling for take two just wasn’t good enough for what Felton was looking for, and though they had to fight through a few more mistake-ridden takes to get there, by take six he knew he’d done the right thing.

"You Ask Me To" by Waylon Jennings, released on the album Honky Tonk Heroes in June 1973:

My favorite part of Elvis' cover of this song, and what gives it a noticeable difference from Waylon Jennings' original recording as you can notice, is the backing vocals added to the tune. I simply LOVE the female voices accompanying Elvis during the chorus.

On the other hand, one thing I'm not sure why it happened is the minor difference in the title between the original release and Elvis' recording. The original title, as written on the cover of Waylon Jennings' 1973 album is "You Ask Me To", but in Elvis' 1975 album it's written "You Asked Me To", which are also words in the lyrics anyway but the slight change in the title for the past tense form may be a little confusing for the ones noticing it. Below, Elvis' Promised Land LP back cover and Waylon Jennings' Honky Tonk Heroes LP back cover.

[greensparty]

Album Review: Weezer "The Blue Album 30th Anniversary Edition"

In 2024 Weezer are alt-rock elder statesmen, but back in the early 90s they were just making a name for themselves in the L.A. scene. A band equally influenced by metal bands like Quiet Riot as they were The Beach Boys. They were too nerdy and full of irony to fit in with L.A.'s metal scene and it was a little before emo had begun. But it was their 1994 debut album Weezer (known as The Blue Album) on DGC that put them on the map. Their brand of power pop was reminiscent of new wave and particularly The Cars and appropriately, the album was produced by The Cars leader Ric Ocasek. I first became aware of the band in the Fall of 1994 when I heard “Undone (The Sweater Song)”, which had this infectious rhythm that just stayed in your head long after hearing. That music video was directed by Spike Jonze, who did their so memorable next video “Buddy Holly”, which is amazing in the way it combines classic Happy Days footage with newly shot footage of the band performing at Big Al’s! I got the album around that time. It didn’t exactly set the world on fire when it was first released in May 1994 (the alt-rock world was still mourning from Kurt Cobain’s death a month earlier), but in the years that followed, The Blue Album has been looked at as leading the Emo movement and it’s appeared on many Best-Of lists, notably 90s lists. I saw them in 2005 when they co-headlined a tour with Foo Fighters, known as the Foozer Tour.  Great band! Singer/guitarist/songwriter Rivers Cuomo is still a power pop genius. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band's biggest selling (and arguably best album), UMe is releasing a deluxe box set this week.

original album cover

The band had formed in 1992 with Cuomo, drummer Patrick Wilson, bassist Matt Sharp (he left the band in 1998), and after starting with guitarist Jason Cropper in 1992-93, Brian Bell replaced him and the classic Weezer lineup was in place. This box set is a deep dive into the album and the demos and live recordings of that era. I got to review the 3-CD set. CD1 is the remastered album and BBC recordings. CD2 is early Kitchen Tape demos and early recordings. CD3 is early live recordings and LMU sessions. There is also a fanzine with liner notes from the band's friend and collaborator Karl Koch, lithographs, a poster of Weezer as Kiss, song-themed sticker sheet, twelve-sided die, enamel Bokkus pin, and the box set boasts “sweater” embossed graphics complete with a pullable and retractable thread.

some of the goodies that come with this box set

Here is the thing with this box set: It is definitely For Fans Only, but not nearly as much as I thought it would be. I thought you were going to have to be a Weezer fanatic to truly appreciate it, but to my surprise it was kind of impressive with some of the early rarities. There's loads of bells and whistles that fans are going to eat up, but the biggest treat for me as a fan of The Cars is hearing their early rehearsal demo cover of "Just What I Needed" that they did to woo Ocasek, which worked. He worked his magic on this album and produced two more albums with them. There are some gems in here, but a double album would've been better. If you can afford it, there's definitely some cool bells and whistles in the packaging itself. But the real treat is the album itself, still their best IMHO!

For info on the 30th anniversary Blue Album

Original album: 4.5 out of 5 stars

30th Anniversary Edition: 3.5 out of 5 stars

[ambrosesystem]

WEEZER. PART 1.

if you follow me, you have most likely (definitely) heard of the band weezer. and if you're reading this right now, you have heard of weezer 100% and have heard buddy holly once at the very least. and yeah. of course you have. since that's the most popular weezer song due to its success when it first released and recent internet memes.

now, for the very rare few who haven't heard of weezer:

weezer is a band from los angeles california. the band was formed in 1992 by rivers cuomo, patrick wilson, matt sharp, and jason cropper. although, the current members, (as of 2024), are rivers cuomo, patrick wilson, brian bell, and scott shriner. and me? im fucking obsessed with this band oh my god

what in the blue album weezering

the most popular weezer album huh...... the one that looks like buddy holly. the one with all of the memes associated with it. how did this album begin? why the fuck would rivers cuomo do this? is he okay? whale whale whale let me tell you dear child

the blue album, also known as weezer, which is weezers debut album, was released on may 10, 1994. the albums debut single is undone - the sweater song, which you have most likely heard of in some shape or form. although, despite the song gaining some success, many people had just seen the band as a gimmick or just some nerds. (to be fair, literally just look at them). after this, the band went: ok so uh. buddy holly becomes a single badabingbadaboom. along with this, there was a video directed by spike jonze (who also directed undone). the buddy holly music video is based off of the sitcom happy days from the 1970s by the way if youu somehow did not know. and boom . buddy holly AND weezer blew up . explosions everywhere babyyy. exploded so hard it won a mtv video music award.

wait a fucking second!!! how did rivers feel about this??!????!!!

my dear child good question. well, let's jusr say. he was not very much enjoyinf it. he couldn't tell if the success was due to the directing of the music video and the music video itself, or if it was the (great) songwriting. rivers did nottt wanna be seen as ironic.

oh! ok! new single alert!!! say it ain't so. this time, no directing done by the spike jonze guy. aaaannnd it was released as a single in 1995 this time. this music video? performed in a garage at the amherst house.

oh my fucking god its pinkerton what in the queer

pinkerton. second weezer album. very great very good. just like blue.

WAAIT A SECOND?? but... songs from the black hole...

to get into pinkerton, we gotta go over songs from the black hole first.. so yeag lets do that!

after the explosions and blowing up of weezer, rivers went: uh. yeah bro im just gonna do all the songwriting now. COMPLETE CONTROL THANKS. rivers also went: do i reallyyy wanna be a rockstar.... is this REALLY for me?

after that, due to rivers being a fan of madame butterfly and getting inspired by it, he wanted to work on his own opera. named, songs from the black hole. it would require each weezer member to be assigned a character. two temporary female vocalists. and it would need to be spacey and synthy.

now, there's wayyy more things about this project, but im not going to talk abt them today.

but hey, did you know rivers went to harvard? probably, probably not, who knows. while at harvard, he got WRITERS BLOCK~ SO FUN!!! anywyas. ego suffering. limping while walking to class. not fun.

ah, wait, but then he started to write some songs abt his experience at harvard! woag! yeag. theres a LOT more to this but i need to get to pinkerton NOW. that being said,

pinkerton. finally. new weezer album? how queer. guess we doing honesty and no gimmicks now.

early september. album almost finished. woohoo! oh wait. sued? because of the name? what the hell? oh. quickly got not sued. okok we good we chill.

lets go. new weezer album, released on september 24, 1996. oh? mostly negative and eh reviews? uhhh. ummm.. ah, first single el scorcho music video! also a flop????? some people said it was the "worst album of 1996"????? well fuck.

k what now? umm. re-record PINK TRIANGLE!!!!!!! (that song is very special to me for many reasons by the way). oh . ok. pibk traingel released as a radio promo disc.

well! this didn't go so well. now, the band is going separate ways to work on projects??!!?!? erm what the sigma or whatever the kids say

lets fast forward um. several years. we don't usually see pinkerton like they did back then huh. yeah. critics had decided to go back to pinkerton and finally went: holy shit this is good

and with that, the first two weezer albums were born. damn! okay. how do we feel about these albums today again?

now, many weezer fans consider these two albums to be great. with some minority STILL not liking pinkerton. now, despite its mediocre reception when it was released, it is mostly considered to be a masterpiece. now, what about the blue album? classic. every weezer fan has to listen to this album. it may not be everyones favorite, but it is definitely appreciated. its like a stepping stone, waiting for greater things to come. the blue album and pinkerton are definitely some of the most important weezer albums.

so. did you know i like weezer. also if you want even more info about these albumsw go watch youtueb videos and read shit thanks bye

[thebowerypresents]

Holly Humberstone – Brooklyn Steel – May 11, 2014

After putting out a pair of EPs and a slew of singles, pop singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone’s much-anticipated debut full-length, Paint My Bedroom Black, arrived last fall. And the monthlong North American tour in support of it, brought the talented English musician to a sold-out Brooklyn Steel on Saturday, her first of two nights at the venue.

Photos courtesy of Michelle Paradis | @michelleparadis_

[dreamsister81]

THE LEAP INTO LEGEND

By Holly George Warren via the Coda Collection, 2021

He was the man with a thousand voices — or so it appeared. I experienced Jeff Buckley live a few times — and that first night, in 1993, a Monday at tiny Café Sin-é across from my East Village apartment in New York, is forever seared in my brain. Not knowing anything about him beforehand, I sized him up as just another cute guy with a guitar. Nearly three decades later, it has become increasingly apparent that I have never seen — nor do I expect to see again — a vocalist so spookily gifted.

Jeff Buckley leaves behind a story that seems scripted from myth. He is the SoCal boy descended from an angel-throated folksinger (Tim Buckley) who had died of a drug overdose at 28, when Jeff was only 8. He comes of age poor, toils in obscurity as a metal-band guitarist, seemingly unaware of — or resistant to — that which percolates within him. Landing in New York in his early 20s, he uncorks a five-octave voice to rival his father’s, and writes bold, baroque rock songs — multi-tiered, Zeppelin-esque anthems and keening, sex-drenched romantic balladry. He delivers them, alongside a crazy quilt of diverse covers, with operatic skill placing him among (some would say above) Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant. The latter would become a fan, as would Bono, Bowie, Lou Reed, Chrissie Hynde and Elvis Costello. At the height of his quick fame, natural forces — i.e. the Mississippi River — take him from this world, in an incomprehensible, freak 1997 drowning in Memphis. He would leave behind one studio album, “Grace,” and join the galaxy of brilliant comets who died too young, like Nick Drake and Gram Parsons.

Back to that Monday night in ’93. My singer-songwriter husband shared the bill with a sweaty 26-year-old Jeff Buckley at our St. Mark’s “local” — an Irish tea-and-coffee place by day that served beer and wine at night to about 30 people who’d pass the hat for neighborhood troubadours. No stage, just a spot where a table was shoved aside from the brick wall. My spouse lent him his capo so Buckley could play John Cale’s version of Leonard Cohen’s not-yet-ubiquitous “Hallelujah.” In my memory, the songs preceding this ranged from Porter Wagoner’s “A Satisfied Mind” to a Duane Eddy riff to an Edith Piaf chanson (in French), delivered with both offhand skill and devil-may-care goofiness, as around a boozy campfire or in someone’s smoky living room. Then came “Hallelujah.”

The disarmingly supple voice kicked into gear, encompassing all the sexual yearning and spiritual quest of that tune. Owning it. Murmuring, crooning, unabashedly howling — sometimes all within one line. The room collectively swooned. Rather than milk the moment, as the last echoes of “Hallelujah” faded, Buckley jokily — albeit expertly — picked out the intro to “Stairway to Heaven,” stopping to chat with the audience mid-song.

This was his routine, apparently. Slay, then lower expectations. I wonder now if the intentionally amateurish aspects weren’t so much impish boy stuff, but rather Buckley discovering his superpowers in the moment, onstage. Freaked out, he’d step back from that ledge, not yet ready to fly. Maybe he knew his low-stakes obscurity — what he later called his “café days” — would be short-lived, something to be savored.

Sure enough, within months, limos lined St. Mark’s Place on Monday nights, crowds spilled out onto the sidewalk and we watched from our fire escape as Jeff Buckley was spirited away to the big leagues. It all seemed foretold.

The footage of Buckley performing two years later with bassist Mick Groøndahl, guitarist Michael Tighe and drummer Matt Johnson at Chicago’s Metro on May 13, 1995, is peak Buckley. “Grace” has been out nine months, with Buckley touring nonstop ever since. It shows in the band’s effortless mastery of its boss’ often challenging material — the whisper-to-a-scream “Mojo Pin,” the spellbinding drama of “So Real,” the delicate, pandemonium-inducing “Lilac Wine,” all tracks from his debut.

By now, Buckley is in full possession of his preternatural voice, or rather, it is in full possession of him. Falsetto here, purr there, and a wail sourced from the Sufi Qawwali devotional music he loves and champions. Buckley rarely moves far from his mic, concentrating his energy on singing and executing impressive guitar work. But by the last third of the set, fully on, he steps into abandon: an instrumental of his work-in-progress “Vancouver,” segueing into the Alex Chilton/Big Star cover, “Kanga Roo,” which finds him excitedly pogoing (like a kangaroo?); a full-throttle version of the MC5 gangbuster “Kick Out the Jams,” on which he’s joined at the mic by a stage-diving guitar tech. Unlike most rock artists, he ends the show not with the typical rave-up, but rather sends his band away and leaves the crowd agog with a solo “Hallelujah.”

Between songs throughout the set, he resembles that guy I first saw in ’93, joking, listening to requests, vulnerable, smiling at the ardor beyond the stage lights. He gracefully handles the enthusiastic yelling and passionate outcry from the packed house, only once telling an obnoxious guy to fuck off (which gets a big laugh). But whereas at Sin-é, Buckley made holding back a riveting thing to watch, at Metro, he fulfills the promise he’d shown. He steps to the edge, and he flies.

Jeff Buckley “Live in Chicago” Setlist

Dream Brother

Lover, You Should’ve Come Over

Mojo Pin

So Real

Last Goodbye

Eternal Life

Kick Out the Jams (MC5 cover)

Lilac Wine (James Shelton cover)

What Will You Say

Grace

Vancouver

Kanga Roo (Big Star cover)

Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover)

[modernmanblues]

Happy New Year to you!! ✨ Here’s to another year of loving our favorite hot men from the 70s and 80s lol. Speaking of hot men, I have listened to some of 10cc’s music and so far the songs I really like The Film of My Love, Speed Kills, and Headline Hustler. Their sound mostly reminds me of The Rolling Stones and The Who but they still manage bring new stuff to the table I think. I actually think the singer sounds a lot like Ringo Starr’s singing voice but that may just be me. So I read their bio on Spotify, too. So that Graham guy is quite the songwriter and wrote for other bands like The Yardbirds and The Hollies? I thought that was cool. By the way, I find Graham pretty attractive, too. Looks like they had one or two songs that became hits in America but that’s about it. From my understanding, being successful in America was like the holy grail for uk bands at this time. It they achieved that goal, they were on a very good track. When The Kinks got banned in the US, that seemed to hurt them a lot. Sadly for 10cc they didn’t stay popular in the US for long. But still, seven years is not bad at all. I know of bands that had much shorter life spans. It looks like they had a good run regardless. By the way, I’m curious about how you discovered them! Also, I’ve actually reblogged from you before the Secret Santa game! It was a post with two black and white pictures of Ray Davies. He’s just so..😍 I couldn’t resist. Anyways, talk to you later!

hello, dear. and a happy new year to you!! ✨

everything alright with your new year so far? and hey, here’s to another year of us loving these sensational 60s/70s men. they just don’t make them like they used to, do they?

while i may ogle at other 70s guys here and there, i cannot deny just how insufferable i am about that Eric Stewart. he is just..*chefs kiss* bellissimo!! the cherry on top. the icing on the cake. an absolute adonis. he just does it for me. no one like him really. and given that his birthday is on January 20th, and he is my soulmate sign aquarius, the gemini in me can’t help but make such a big fuss him around this time of year. a beautiful man, that Eric. i love him with all my heart.

Eric does have a Ringo way about him, doesn’t he? he is after all from Manchester, just across from The Beatles’ neck of the woods Liverpool. i really do feel like guys from Manchester and Liverpool have a certain charm about them that’s just so captivating, i can’t quite put my finger on it. anyway, i think part of the reason why i’m so attached to Eric is the fact that i feel like he is all four Beatles combined. he possesses Paul’s charming and cuddly persona, John’s wit and sensitive attitude, George’s humbleness and Ringo’s happy go lucky mindset. he is the entire package, what more could a girl want?

oh and don’t get me started on Graham. he is so charming, even in real life. i’ve seen him a couple times in concert and my goodness, he really has kept up his good looks all these years. good on him. what a talented fella too! after all, he did get his start on music arranging songs for those early British Invasion bands you mentioned. i think it’s brilliant, all the work he’s done.

it is such a pity that 10cc never made it in America. i’m sorry to say it but i blame it on the recording company they were signed into, who basically ended up gouging the poor boys for their money and did little to promote them in America. it has been said that they could’ve been much bigger, and be talked and raved about in the same way as The Beatles or Pink Floyd. but the management was the culprit for their demise. so sad, really but either way they were and still are such a brilliant little band.

and i am so happy you like all those 10cc tracks you mentioned, as they are my personal favourites as well! i recommend giving their Sheet Music and Deceptive Bends album a listen when you can. they won’t disappoint!

and my oh my, that Ray Davies..he turns heads doesn’t he? another beautiful guy along with his brother, David. as of recent though, i’ve been crushing heavily on Dave. i love how cheeky he is. little bugger, that one.

well it was really nice hearing from you again, darling. all the best to you in the new year. feel free to stop in anytime, always love chatting xx

[classicrockblog1]

Donald “Don” McLean III (born October 2, 1945) is an #singer #songwriter best known for the 1971 #album American Pie, containing the #songs “American Pie” and “Vincent”.

McLean’s magnum opus, “American Pie”, is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. The song popularized the expression “The Day the Music Died” in reference to this event.[2]

The song was recorded on May 26, 1971, and a month later received its first radio airplay on New York’s WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM to mark the closing of Fillmore East, the famous New York concert hall. “American Pie” reached number one on the Hot 100from 15 January - 5 February 1972 and remains McLean’s most successful single release. The single also topped theBillboardEasy Listening survey. With a total running time of 8:36 encompassing both sides of the single, it is also the longest song to reach No. 1. Some stations played only part one of the original split-sided single release.

[neeseeart]

Today's drawing music:

Device - 22B3 (1986)

This is one of my favorite albums ever. One song isn't enough to give you an idea. This whole album is unskippable. Device has such a solid, sensual sound that no other group can fully match. They're sort of a supergroup. You may know the lead singer Paul Engemann from his song Push It To The Limit, from Scarface. Holly Knight is a songwriting icon who's written more bangers than I can handle(look her up!). It's awful that they only have one album together, but what an album it is 🥲

[mywifeleftme]

73: Bobby Fuller // Best of the Bobby Fuller Four

Best of the Bobby Fuller Four Bobby Fuller 1981, Rhino

Bobby Fuller’s story has been told many, many times, but I don’t mind telling it again because Bobby Fuller was one of the greatest almosts in rock history. At the time of his, ehh uhh, suspicious death in 1966 at the age of 23, he might’ve been the most vital artist in traditional rock and roll. Fuller picked up the torch from its dead (Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochrane) or washed up (nearly everyone else) heroes and, in the prime of the Beach Boys, Byrds, and (gestures broadly) British Invasion, cut roughly 25 tracks that proved there was still real magic remaining in the Cadillac Chuck Berry built.

Fuller was both an ingenious studio rat and a rock true believer—accounts describe innovative home recording set-ups, even as he refused to use any studio overdubs his band could not reproduce live. He thought it crucial that the Bobby Fuller Four concert experience match record listeners’ expectations, a conviction reinforced by the fervor their performances built among fans in his home city of El Paso. Rock and roll’s “big beat” was what initially drove teens crazy, and on Fuller rockers the drums are at least as loud as the guitars—listen to the rawhide anthem “Never to Be Forgotten” in stereo and notice how the drums basically get an entire channel to themselves while the rest of the instruments clowncar into the other. With Bobby’s almost mariachi-like guitar attack leading the way, the Four were as galvanizing a rhythm combo as the mid-‘60s had to offer.

“Let Her Dance,” Fuller’s first regional success, is the purest hit of rock feelgood I know. It is two-and-a-half-minutes of climax, thanks to a relentlessly circular riff that seems to gather force by recycling energy back into itself—as if a Shepard tone were catchy. There’s a description of Heaven in the last of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books as “further up and further in,” a joyful running you can do forever without tiring. That’s what this song is, and I can never listen to it just once, or even twice.

Equally essential is “I Fought the Law,” the song for which Fuller will forever be remembered. “I Fought the Law” began life as a number by the first post-Buddy iteration of the Crickets, penned by Holly’s replacement Sonny Curtis. The rhythm perfectly evokes telephone poles and cactuses whipping by the passenger window of a muscle car roaring through the desert, adorable harmonies not quite obscuring the fact that the chain-ganged narrator doesn’t regret breaking the law—just getting caught.

By the time “I Fought the Law” had caught on as a national hit (eventually peaking at #9 on the Hot 100), the Bobby Fuller Four had assembled an array of bangers, from quavering Holly-esque kiss-off “Only When I Dream” to acoustic jamboree “Saturday Night” (which I’m convinced Paul Simon bit for “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard!”). The two LPs released during Fuller’s short lifetime, 1965’s oddball radio station cash-in KRLA King of the Wheels and 1966’s I Fought the Law, are mostly hodgepodged from these contemporaneous singles and have a bunch of overlap, which means there isn’t a ton of difference between them and later compilations like this 1981 entry from Rhino Records (Finally, you’re thinking).

Best of the Bobby Fuller Four is practically a reissue of I Fought the Law, with “Julie,” “A New Shade of Blue,” “You Kiss Me,” “Little Annie Lou,” and “Take My Word” swapped out for the dopey title track from King of the Wheels and later recordings “Love’s Made a Fool of You” (passable retread of “I Fought the Law”), “The Magic Touch” (pretty good stab at Motown/Spencer Davis Group), “It’s Love, Come What May” (a mid-tempo gem composed by Bobby’s brother Randy), “Don’t Ever Let Me Know” (a wistful Everlys-style number), “My True Love” (a hint psychedelia might’ve looked alright on Bobby), and “I’m a Lucky Guy” (an alright R&B tune by some hired gun songwriters one senses Fuller had his arm twisted into recording). That’s a fairly even trade, save for the omission of “A New Shade of Blue,” Fuller’s greatest ballad and a song that should by all rights have become a standard.

As is usually the case with vinyl compilations, Best of the Bobby Fuller Four has been supplanted by more comprehensive CD-era treatments, of which the three-disc Never to Be Forgotten: The Mustang Years (1997) remains definitive. With that said, Best of shows the typical care Rhino put into their reissues, including a hidden track: a commercial for LA’s KHJ radio station that swaps the words to “I Fought the Law” out for an ad read about their summer Big Kahuna ad campaign. It’s a nice nod to some of the boneheaded schemes Fuller’s producer Bob Keane of Del-Fi Records came up with to help break his young star:

“Keane came up with a succession of dumb marketing ideas for the group: a single released as the Shindigs to secure a slot on the music TV show Shindig!; a drag racing-themed debut long-player, branded with the name of the Los Angeles radio station KRLA; a cameo in The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini—a goofy beach party movie starring Boris Karloff – lip-synching to songs behind Nancy Sinatra.” — Chris Campion in The Guardian

Ultimately, Fuller would be found dead in his mother’s Oldsmobile, allegedly at his own hand. The Guardian story I linked to above offers a good synopsis of the reasons for doubt, laying out a plausible hypothesis that he might’ve been done in following a business disagreement with the notoriously mobbed up Morris Levy of Roulette Records, who had just signed a distribution agreement with Keane’s label. At 23, Fuller was already long in the tooth compared to his idols Holly, Valens, and Cochrane at the time of their own deaths; but by any other yardstick, he was a painfully young man of remarkable drive and ability, who stood as good a chance as anyone at presenting an American answer to Britain’s mid-‘60s dominance over white R&B.

73/365

[mrcardinal14]

Graham Gouldman (born May 10, 1946) is an English singer, musician and songwriter, best known as the co-lead singer and bassist of the art rock band 10cc.

He penned many hits for major rock and pop groups, including the Yardbirds, the Hollies, and Herman's Hermits.

A partial list of songs Gouldman wrote for other artists:

For the Yardbirds: For Your Love, Heart Full of Soul

For the Hollies: Bus Stop, Look Through Any Window

For Herman's Hermits: No Milk Today, Listen People

For Wayne Fontana: Pamela, Pamela

[knick-nudiex]

A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk-acoustic tradition with a guitar, although this role has transmuted through different eras of popular music. Traditionally, these musicians would write and sing songs personal to them. Singer-songwriters often provide the sole musical accompaniment to an entire song. The piano is also an instrument of choice.

In the early 21st century, various digital production tools, examples including GarageBand and other software programs, began to be used by singer-songwriters to compose their music and otherwise work as an audio engineer enhancing media.

Definition and usage The label "singer-songwriter" (or "song-writer/singer") is used by record labels and critics to define popular music artists who write and perform their own material, which is often self-accompanied – generally on acoustic guitar or piano. Such an artist performs the roles of composer, lyricist, vocalist, sometimes instrumentalist, and often self-manager.[4] According to AllMusic, singer-songwriters' lyrics are often personal but veiled by elaborate metaphors and vague imagery, and their creative concern is to place emphasis on the song rather than on their performance of it. Most records by such artists have a similarly straightforward and spare sound that places emphasis on the song itself.[5]

The term may also characterise songwriters in the rock, folk, country, and pop-music genres – including Henry Russell (1812–1900), Aristide Bruant (1851–1925), Hank Williams (1923–1953), and Buddy Holly (1936–1959). The phrase "singer-songwriter", recorded from 1949,[6] came into popular usage from the 1960s onwards[7] to describe songwriters who followed particular stylistic and thematic conventions, particularly lyrical introspection, confessional songwriting, mild musical arrangements, and an understated performing style.[8] According to writer Larry David Smith, because it merged the roles of composer, writer, and singer, the popularity of the singer-songwriter phenomenon reintroduced the Medieval troubadour tradition of "songs with public personalities" after the Tin Pan Alley era in American popular music.[9] Song topics of singer-songwriters from the American folk music revival include political protest, as in the case of Woody Guthrie (1912–1967) and Pete Seeger (1919–2014).[10] According to the Journal of Popular Music Studies, from the folk revival and onward into its permanence in pop music, the role of a singer-songwriter has involved several dimensions of creative identity:

The first aesthetic layer encourages songwriters to sing and perform their own works and to instill their own stylistic flavors into the song texts. The songwriters are not independent from the works once they are finished; rather, they enter into, activate, and authenticate the song texts through their vocal and musical performances. While the first layer does not always require the singer to be the songwriter, the second sociological layer not only fixates on the relationship between singer and songwriter (in this case, singer-songwriter is often hyphenated instead of using a slash between singer and songwriter), but also solicits more sociological agency aside from singing and songwriting, such as arranging, mixing, producing, collaborating, and media management. In other words, a singer-songwriter thus undergoes a thickening process involving two-layered voices, including performing stylistic persona, amassing other voices, and coordinating other sociological skills. This thickening process demonstrates the fluid, multiple, and heterogeneous voices underneath the singular authorial image, thus complicating the notion of authorship for singer-songwriters.[11]

History

Hank Williams, 1951 The concept of a singer-songwriter can be traced to ancient bardic oral tradition, which has existed in various forms throughout the world. Poems would be performed as chant or song, sometimes accompanied by a harp or other similar instrument. After the invention of printing, songs would be written and performed by ballad sellers. Usually these would be versions of existing tunes and lyrics, which were constantly evolving. This developed into the singer-songwriting traditions of folk culture.

Traveling performers existed throughout Europe. Thus, the folklorist Anatole Le Braz gives a detailed account of one ballad singer, Yann Ar Minouz, who wrote and performed songs traveling through Brittany in the late nineteenth century and selling printed versions.[12]

In large towns it was possible to make a living performing in public venues, and with the invention of phonographic recording, early singer-songwriters like Théodore Botrel, George M. Cohan, and Hank Williams became celebrities; radio further added to their public recognition and appeal.

During the period from the 1940s through the 1960s, sparked by the American folk music revival, young performers inspired by traditional folk music and groups like the Almanac Singers and the Weavers began writing and performing their own original material and creating their own musical arrangements.[13]

In the early 21st century, the digital audio workstation GarageBand has been utilized by many aspiring singer-songwriters to compose and record music.[14] Singer-songwriters who have composed music professionally with GarageBand include Erykah Badu (for her 2008 album New Amerykah Part One)[15] and Bilal (for his 2010 album Airtight's Revenge).[16]

Traditions in different countries North America, United Kingdom, and Ireland See also: American folk music revival

Paul Simon in concert, 2011 The term "singer-songwriter" in North America can be traced back to singers who developed works in the blues and folk music style. Early to mid-20th century American singer-songwriters include Lead Belly,[17] Jimmie Rodgers,[18] Blind Lemon Jefferson,[19] T-Bone Walker,[20] Blind Willie McTell,[21] Lightnin' Hopkins,[22] Son House,[23] and Robert Johnson.[24][25] In the 1940s and 1950s country singer-songwriters like Hank Williams became well known,[26] as well as Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger,[27] along with Ronnie Gilbert and Lee Hays and other members of the Weavers who performed their mostly topical works to an ever-growing wider audience.[28] These proto-singer-songwriters were less concerned than today's singer-songwriters with the unadulterated originality of their music and lyrics, and would lift parts from other songs and play covers without hesitation. The tradition of writing topical songs (songs regarding specific issues of the day, such as Lead Belly's "Jim Crow Blues" or Guthrie's "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)") was established by this group of musicians. Singers like Seeger and Guthrie would attend rallies for labor unions, and so wrote many songs concerning the life of the working classes, and social protest; as did other folksingers like Josh White, Cisco Houston, Malvina Reynolds, Earl Robinson, Ewan MacColl, John Jacob Niles, and Doc Watson, while blues singers like Johnson and Hopkins wrote songs about their personal life experiences. This focus on social issues has greatly influenced the singer-songwriter genre. Additionally in the 1930s through the 1950s several jazz and blues singer-songwriters emerged like Hoagy Carmichael, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Harry Gibson, Peggy Lee, and Nina Simone, as well as in the rock n' roll genre from which emerged influential singer-songwriters Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Sam Cooke, Ritchie Valens, and Paul Anka. In the country music field, singer-songwriters like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Roger Miller, Billy Edd Wheeler, and others emerged from the 1940s through the 1960s, often writing compelling songs about love relationships and other subjects.

The first popular recognition of the singer-songwriter in English-speaking North America and the United Kingdom occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s when a series of blues, folk and country-influenced musicians rose to prominence and popularity. These singer-songwriters included Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Lennon, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Albert Hammond, Gordon Lightfoot, and Joni Mitchell. Artists who had been primarily songwriters, notably Carole King, Townes Van Zandt, and Neil Diamond, also began releasing work as performers. In contrast to the storytelling approach of most prior country and folk music, these performers typically wrote songs from a highly personal (often first-person), introspective point of view. The adjectives "confessional" and "sensitive" were often used (sometimes derisively) to describe singer-songwriter style.

James Taylor in 1969

Carole King performing aboard USS Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean in 2000 In the rock band era, members were not technically singer-songwriters as solo acts. However, many were singer-songwriters who created songs with other band members. Examples include Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, Elton John (with Bernie Taupin), Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Robbie Robertson, Ian Anderson, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Peter Frampton, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Country Joe McDonald, and Barry Melton. Many others like Eric Clapton found success as singer-songwriters in their later careers.

The scene that had developed out of the American folk music revival, pioneered by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger had grown to a major movement in the early 1960s, popularized by Joan Baez and her protégée, Bob Dylan, who had started reaching a mainstream audience with his hit, Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) bringing "protest songs" to a wider audience. There were hints of cross-pollination, but rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with different audiences. An early attempt at fusing elements of folk and rock was highlighted in the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" (1964), a folk song, recorded with rock and roll instrumentation.

By the mid-1960s Bob Dylan took the lead in merging folk and rock, and in July 1965, released "Like a Rolling Stone", with a revolutionary rock sound, steeped in tawdry urban imagery, followed by an electric performance later that month at the Newport Folk Festival. Dylan plugged an entire generation into the milieu of the singer-songwriter. Often writing from an urban point of view, with poetry punctuated by rock rhythms and electric power, Dylan's fusing of folk and rock freed up emerging singer-songwriters to use elements of both traditions to tell their stories. In the mid- to late 1960s, bands and singer-songwriters began to proliferate the underground New York art/music scene. The release of The Velvet Underground & Nico in 1967, featuring singer-songwriter Lou Reed and German singer and collaborator Nico was described as the "most prophetic rock album ever made" by Rolling Stone in 2003. In the late '60s a new wave of female singer-songwriters broke from the confines of pop, using the urban landscape as their canvas for lyrics in the confessional style of poets like Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath. These pioneering women, appeared in a feature in Newsweek, July 1969, "The Girls: Letting Go: 'What is common to them – to Joni Mitchell and Lotti Golden, to Laura Nyro, Melanie, and to Elyse Weinberg, are the personalised songs they write, like voyages of self-discovery, brimming with keen observation and startling in the impact of their poetry." In The Guardian, author Laura Barton describes the radical shift in subject matter—they sang about politics, love affairs, the urban landscape, drugs, disappointment, and the life and loneliness of the itinerant performer. Lotti Golden, in her Atlantic debut album Motor-Cycle, chronicled her life in NYC's East Village in the late 1960s counterculture, visiting subjects such as gender identity (The Space Queens-Silky is Sad) and excessive drug use (Gonna Fay's). The women in the 1969 Newsweek article ushered in a new age of the contemporary female singer-songwriter that has informed generations of women singer-songwriters into the 21st century,[35] with poet Warsan Shire as the muse for Beyoncé's 2016 album Lemonade.[36]

Lotti Golden performing, Nashville, Tenn., 1971 text Lotti Golden performing, Nashville, Tennessee, in the confessional tradition, 1971 By the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the original wave of singer-songwriters had largely been absorbed into a more general pop or soft rock format, but some new artists in the singer-songwriter tradition (including Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, Chris Isaak, Victoria Williams, John Mellencamp, and Warren Zevon) continued to emerge, and in other cases rock and even punk rock artists such as Peter Case, Paul Collins, and Paul Westerberg transitioned to careers as solo singer-songwriters. Kate Bush remained distinctive throughout with her idiosyncratic style.

In the late 1980s, the term was applied to a group of predominantly female U.S. artists, beginning with Suzanne Vega whose first album sold unexpectedly well, followed by the likes of Tracy Chapman, Melissa Etheridge, Nanci Griffith, k.d. lang, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain, Sarah McLachlan, Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow, Lisa Loeb, Joan Osborne, Indigo Girls, and Tori Amos, who found success first in the United Kingdom, then in her home market. In the early 1990s, female artists also began to emerge in new styles, including Courtney Love and PJ Harvey. Later in the mid-1990s, the term was revived again with the success of Canada's Alanis Morissette and her breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill.

Also in the 1980s and 1990s, artists such as Bono, the Edge, Dave Matthews, Jeff Buckley, Richard Barone, Duncan Sheik, and Elliott Smith borrowed from the singer-songwriter tradition to create new acoustic-based rock styles. In the 2000s, a quieter style emerged, with largely impressionistic lyrics, from artists such as Norah Jones, Conor Oberst, Sufjan Stevens, David Bazan, South San Gabriel, Iron & Wine, David Gray, Ray LaMontagne, Meg Hutchinson, Darden Smith, Josh Rouse, Steve Millar, Jolie Holland, Patrick Duff, Richard Buckner, Jewel, Jack Savoretti, Richard Shindell, John Gorka, and Antje Duvekot. Some started to branch out in new genres such as Kurt Cobain, Noel Gallagher, T Bone Burnett, Eddie Vedder, and Pete Yorn. Others used drugs as a mind-altering way to boost creativity; for example, Emil Amos of Holy Sons took drugs daily from age sixteen on, wrote over 1,000 songs, and landed a record contract with an indie label.[37]

Recording on the professional-grade systems became affordable for individuals in the late 1990s. This created opportunities for people to independently record and sell their music. Such artists are known as "indies" because they release their records on independent, often self-owned record labels, or no label at all. Additionally the Internet has provided a means for indies to get their music heard by a wider audience.

David Crosby, (of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash) is one of the singer-songwriters who crossed over into mainstream rock, seen here in 1976 backstage of the Frost Amphitheater, Stanford University.

Tracy Chapman began singing about social issues in American society in the 1980s.

Norah Jones performing on an electric piano in 2010. Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar.

Taylor Swift is a contemporary singer-songwriter (pictured in 2015)

Matty Healy is a British singer-songwriter who fronts the indie art pop band the 1975 (pictured in 2019) Chanson, the French tradition French "chanson" comes from an old tradition, since the Middle Ages. It is driven by the rhythms of the French language. It can be distinguished from the rest of French "pop" music or soft rock format that began to spread in France during the 1960s until today, under the cultural influence of Anglo-American rock music and the rock band era.

The first modern French singer-songwriter was Charles Trenet, who began his solo career in 1938. He was the first to use jazz rhythms in chanson. He would remain an isolated act until the creative blooming of a new generation during the post-World War II era (mid-1940s and 1950s), where such artists as Léo Ferré, Georges Brassens, Félix Leclerc (from Quebec), Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel (from Belgium), Henri Salvador (from French Guiana), Charles Aznavour, and Barbara appeared, with contrasted and rich imagination. Most of them are recognized as great masters by younger generations of French artists, especially Ferré (for the richness of his lyrics, his melodic genius, his critical density on social issues and his body of work's profoundness) and Gainsbourg (for the bright and tasteful adaptation of pop or rock music with French language-driven rhythms).

During the 1960s and 1970s, prominent singer-songwriters included Claude Nougaro, Jean Ferrat, Boby Lapointe, Françoise Hardy, Frédérik Mey, Michel Polnareff, Nino Ferrer, Christophe, Bernard Lavilliers, Véronique Sanson and Jacques Higelin, amongst others.

Cantautori, the Italian tradition

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Lucio Battisti, 1969 Cantautori (Italian plural; the singular is cantautore) is the Italian expression corresponding to singer-songwriters in English. The word is a portmanteau of cantante (singer) and autore (writer).

The first internationally renowned cantautore was Domenico Modugno with his song "Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu)", a huge best seller in 1958; other early cantautori, who began their careers in the late 50s, are Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco, Umberto Bindi, Giorgio Gaber, and Enzo Jannacci.

Fabrizio De André, Lucio Battisti, and Francesco Guccini began their careers in the '60s, while Edoardo Bennato, Lucio Dalla, Francesco De Gregori, Franco Battiato, Rino Gaetano, Ivano Fossati, Antonello Venditti, Claudio Baglioni, Pino Daniele, Roberto Vecchioni, Angelo Branduardi, and Eugenio Finardi all appeared in the '70s. Their songs are still popular today, often telling stories of marginalized (De André, Guccini, Dalla) and rebellious people (Finardi, De Gregori, Venditti), or having a political background (Venditti, Guccini).

Branduardi was greatly influenced by Medieval and Baroque musical styles, while his lyrics are usually inspired by ancient fables. Battiato started as a progressive rock and cultivated music artist in the 1970s, shifting to an original blend of pop, electronic, new wave, and world music in the 1980s.

Those cantautori linked to the city of Genoa (De André, Paoli, Bindi, Tenco, Baccini, etc.) are also referred as members of the Genoese School.

The Neapolitan cantautore Pino Daniele often fused genres as diverse as R&B, fusion, blues, pop, jazz, and tarantella to produce a sound uniquely his own, with lyrics variously in Italian, Neapolitan or English. Similarly Paolo Conte was often tagged as a cantautore, but was more into the jazz tradition.

In the 1980s Vasco Rossi was renowned for his blend of blues-tinged rock music mixed with Italian melodies. He was nicknamed "the only Italian rockstar" (l'unica rockstar italiana) by his fans.[38]

Mixing international sounds and Italian lyrics, in the 2000s Bugo became the "fantautore", a neologism coined for him.[39] Despite not having achieved great fame, he is considered the pioneer of the renewal of Italian songwriting, making a point to break from the politicised content of the 70s.[40]

In the last 25 years the tradition has mainly been continued by Samuele Bersani, Caparezza, and the so-called "2nd Roman school of cantautori" (including Max Gazzè, Niccolò Fabi, Daniele Silvestri, and Simone Cristicchi).

The word has been borrowed into other languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan cantautor, French chantauteur, Maltese kantawtur, Romanian cantautor, and Slovenian kantavtor.

Iberian-Latin American traditions

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Beginning in the 1960s and following the Italian cantautori style of the 1950s (like the one of Domenico Modugno), many Latin American countries developed singer-songwriter traditions that adopted elements from various popular styles. The first such tradition was the mid-1960s invention of nueva canción, which took hold in Andean countries like Chile, Peru, Argentina and Bolivia.

Caetano Veloso, 2006 At around the same time, the Brazilian popular style bossa nova was evolving into a politically charged singer-songwriter tradition called Tropicalismo. Two performers, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso became two of the most famous people in all of Brazil through their work in Tropicalismo.

After World War II it was developed in Italy a very prolific singer-songwriter (in Italian cantautore) tradition, initially connected with the French school of the chansonniers, and lately developed very heterogeneously. Although the term cantautore normally implies consistent sociopolitical content in lyrics, noteworthy performers in a more inclusive singer-songwriter categorization are: Domenico Modugno, Luigi Tenco, Gino Paoli, Sergio Endrigo, Fabrizio De André, Francesco De Gregori, Antonello Venditti, Roberto Vecchioni, Ivano Fossati, Lucio Dalla, Francesco Guccini, and Franco Battiato.

In neighbouring Malta, the main singer-songwriters are Walter Micallef, Manwel Mifsud and Vince Fabri. They all perform in Maltese.

Spain and Portugal have also had singer-songwriter traditions, which are sometimes said to have drawn on Latin elements. Catalonia is known for the Nova Cançó tradition – exemplified by Joan Manuel Serrat and Lluís Llach; the Portuguese folk/protest singer and songwriter José Afonso helped lead a revival of Portuguese folk culture, including a modernized, more socially aware form of fado called nova canção. Following Portugal's Carnation Revolution of 1974, nova canção became more politicized and was known as canto livre. Another important Spain singer-songwriters are Joaquín Sabina, José Luis Perales, and Luis Eduardo Aute.

In the latter part of the 1960s and into the 1970s, socially and politically aware singer-songwriters like Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés emerged in Cuba, birthing a genre known as nueva trova. Trova as a genre has had broad influence across Latin America. In Mexico, for example, canción yucateca on the Yucatán Peninsula and trova serrana in the Sierra Juárez, Oaxaca, are both regional adaptations of trova. Today, Guatemalan Ricardo Arjona qualifies as Latin America's most commercially successful singer-songwriter. Although sociopolitical engagement is uneven in his oeuvre, some see Arjona's more engaged works as placing him in the tradition of the Italian cantautori.

In the mid-1970s, a singer-songwriter tradition called canto popular emerged in Uruguay.

With the influence of Tropicalismo, Traditional Samba and Bossa Nova, MPB (Música popular brasileira), or Brazilian Popular Music, became highly singer-songwriter based. For years solo artists would dominate Brazilian popular music with romantic cynicism alla Jobim or subliminal anti-government messages alla Chico Buarque. After the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil, Brazilian music became less politically and socially conscious. The censored Raul Seixas or the humorous spiritualist Jorge Ben were slowly obscured by funk carioca, axé music, and Brazilian disco. In recent years, however, a new stock of socially conscious Brazilian singer-songwriters is beginning to break the almost strictly dance-music momentum that has reigned since the 1980s (see the 'Brazilian folk/folk-rock sub-article in Brazilian Music).

Soviet Union and Russia Main article: Bard (Soviet Union)

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Soviet and Russian bard Bulat Okudzhava, 1976 Since the 1960s, those singers who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment have been known as "bards". The first songs traditionally referred to as bard songs are thought to be written in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and the very existence of the genre is traditionally originated from the amateur activities of the Soviet intelligentsia, namely mass backpacking movement and the students' song movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Many bards performed their songs in small groups of people using a Russian guitar, rarely if ever would they be accompanied by other musicians or singers. Though, bards using piano or accordion are also known. Those who became popular held modest concerts. The first nationwide-famous bards (starting their career in the 1950s) are traditionally referred to as the First Five: Mikhail Ancharov, Alexander Gorodnitsky, Novella Matveyeva, Bulat Okudzhava, and Yuri Vizbor. In the 1960s, they were joined by Vladimir Vysotsky, Victor Berkovsky, Yuliy Kim, and many others.

In the course of the 1970s, the shift to the classical 6-string guitar took place, and now, a Russian guitar is a rare bird with the bards. In the same period, the movement of KSP (Kluby Samodeyatelnoy Pesni – amateur song fan clubs) emerged, providing the bards with highly educated audience, and up to the end of the 1980s being their key promotion engine. Bards were rarely permitted to record their music, partly given the political nature of many songs, partly due to their vague status in the strictly organised state-supported show business establishment of the USSR. As a result, bard tunes usually made their way around as folk lore, from mouth to mouth, or via the copying of amateur recordings (sometimes referred as magnitizdat) made at concerts, particularly those songs that were of political nature. Bard poetry differs from other poetry mainly in the fact that it is sung along with a simple guitar melody as opposed to being spoken. Another difference is that this form of poetry focuses less on style and more on meaning. This means that fewer stylistic devices are used, and the poetry often takes the form of narrative. What separates bard poetry from other songs is the fact that the music is far less important than the lyrics; chord progressions are often very simple and tend to repeat from one bard song to another. On the other hand, in the USSR the chief bard supporter was the state Union of Composers, and the main bard hater was the state Union of Writers. A far more obvious difference was the commerce-free nature of the genre: songs were written to be sung and not to be sold. The similar genre dominated by singers-songwriters is known as sung poetry in other Post-Soviet countries.

Bulgaria Singer-songwriters are popular in Bulgaria under the name "bards", or "poets with guitars". Their tradition is a mixture of traditional folk motifs, city folklore from the early 20th century, and modern influences. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the Communist regime in the country started to tolerate the Bulgarian "bards", promoting the so-called "political songs", performed usually by one-man bands. A national festival tradition was established, under the title "Alen Mak" (Red Poppy), a symbol with strong Communist meaning in Bulgaria. At the same time, there were some prominent underground figures which were against the official Communist Party line, such as Angel "Jendema" Angelov, Yavor "Yavkata" Rilov, and Velizar "Valdes" Vankov.

After the collapse of Communism in 1989, the singer-songwriters' tradition was re-established. Currently, the Bulgarian "bards" enjoy several festivals (local and international) per year, namely the PoKi Festival (Poets with Guitars, Poetic Strings) in the town of Harmanli, the Bardfest in Lovech, the Sofia Evenings of Singer-Songwriters, and others. Major figures in the Bulgarian tradition are Dimitar Taralezhkov, Angel "Jendema" Angelov, Yavor "Yavkata" Rilov, Velizar "Valdes" Vankov, Dimitar Dobrev, Andro Stubel, Branimir "Bunny" Stoykov, Dorothea Tabakova, Mihail Belchev, Assen Maslarski, Grisha Trifonov, Plamen Stavrev, Vladimir Levkov, Margarita Drumeva, Maria Batchvarova, Plamen Sivov, and Krasimir Parvanov.[citation needed]

Romania Despite the communist isolation, the tradition of the singer-songwriter in Romania flourished beginning with the end of the 1960s and it was put in the context of folk music, with its three main styles in Romania: ethno folk, American-style folk and lyrical (cult) folk. The framework for many of these initiatives came under the form of Cenaclul Flacăra, a series of mass cultural events with an inevitable ideological touch. Still, with the merit of supporting great opening initiatives: the appropriation of Western artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others from the Woodstock generation, the public performance of gospel-like music, the opening to big international issues (pop culture, accountability of the leadership, tension surging during the Cold War-with surprisingly neutral positions, etc.). Overall, the Romanian folk, in general, could be marked as an underground cultural movement, somewhere between non-aligned and protest music.[citation needed]

Liedermacher, the German tradition

Reinhard Mey, 2014 Rooted in the European Bänkelsang ("bench-singing") and Moritat traditions while also taking immediate inspiration from the French chanson scene and the American folk music revival, the 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of a whole generation of German-language singer-songwriters called Liedermacher ("songmakers"), among them Hannes Wader, Franz Josef Degenhardt, Reinhard Mey, and Konstantin Wecker from West Germany, Wolf Biermann from East Germany as well as Ludwig Hirsch and Georg Danzer from Austria. With regards to content and style, the Liedermacher spectrum ranges from political balladeering to rather observational storytelling and love songs. The lyrics often deal with topics such as social injustice, militarism, consumerism, environmental issues or the repercussions of the German Nazi past, often expressing technoskepticism and anti-establishment views.

Sweden In the mid-1960s, Sweden witnessed the renaissance of the "trubadur", the Swedish version of the singer-songwriter. Cornelis Vreeswijk and Fred Åkerström were particularly influential in their efforts to blend the heritage of the "visa" (a specific way to render simple stanzaic poems or songs, given distinction by artists such as Carl Michael Bellman and Evert Taube) with modern approaches to balladeering.

Netherlands Ede Staal (Warffum) (1941–1986) was a Dutch singer-songwriter from the Northern province of Groningen who sang mainly in the Groninger dialect of Dutch.

[jamesandnina6389]

Today Marks The 66th Anniversary Of The Day The Music Died

On February 3, 1959, American Rock And Roll Musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, And "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson Were All Killed In A Plane Crash Near Clear Lake, Iowa, Together With Pilot Roger Peterson. The Event Later Became Known As "The Day The Music Died" After Singer-Songwriter Don McLean Referred To It As Such In His 1971 Song "American Pie".

Jiles Perry "J.P." Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959), Known As The Big Bopper, Was An American Musician And Disc Jockey. His Best-Known Compositions Include "Chantilly Lace" And "White Lightning", The Latter Of Which Became George Jones' First Number-One Hit In 1959. Richardson Was Killed In An Airplane Crash In Clear Lake, Iowa, In 1959, Along With Fellow Musicians Buddy Holly And Ritchie Valens, And The Pilot, Roger Peterson At The Age Of 28.

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), Known As Buddy Holly, Was An an American Singer And Songwriter Who Was A Central And Pioneering Figure Of Mid-1950s Rock And Roll. He Was Born To A Musical Family In Lubbock, Texas During The Great Depression, And Learned To Play Guitar And Sing Alongside His Siblings. His Style Was Influenced By Gospel Music, Country Music, And Rhythm And Blues Acts, Which He Performed In Lubbock With His Friends From High School At The Age Of 22.

Roger Peterson (May 24, 1937 – February 3, 1959) Was The 21-Year-Old Pilot Of The Aircraft Whose Crash Took The Lives Of Rock And Roll Musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens And J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson As Well As Himself. The Event Came To Be Known As “The Day The Music Died”. (At The Age Of 21.)

Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), Known Professionally As Ritchie Valens, Was An American Guitarist, Singer And Songwriter. A Rock And Roll Pioneer And A Forefather Of The Chicano Rock Movement, Valens Was Killed In A Plane Crash Eight Months Into His Music Career At The Age Of 17.

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[radiomaxmusic]

Feature LP / Don McLean - American Pie (1971) / 3pm ET / 2-3-25

American Pie is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Don McLean, released by United Artists Records in October 1971. The folk-rock album reached number one on the Billboard 200, containing the chart-topping singles “American Pie” and “Vincent”. Recorded in May and June 1971 at The Record Plant in New York City, the LP is dedicated to Buddy Holly and was reissued in 1980 minus the…